|
By LIEW HANQING
THE ISSUE: Could a school have done more for a sick student who was due to sit for an exam?
Yes, says his former teacher.
No, says the school. We did all we could for him.
The New Paper was alerted to the student's plight by an anonymous e-mail, which lauded the ex-teacher for helping the student.
The e-mail said that just days before his first examination, the student contracted chicken pox and that it was his former teacher who went out of his way to help him.
It was on Friday, 2 Oct, that the Secondary 4 Normal Academic student came down with chicken pox.
His school, Beatty Secondary School, told him to take his science exam the following Monday at an external examination centre at Portsdown Road.
A teacher handed the student a map and the address of the examination centre, and told him to make his own way there by taxi early in the morning.
Although the school offered to reimburse the taxi fare, his former teacher,Mr CP Tham, 30, felt the school could have done more.
Accompany
Said Mr Tham, who was once a presiding examiner at national examinations: 'Somebody should have accompanied the student to the exam centre. Sometimes, there are very few students taking their exams at external venues.
'It is important that there is someone to guide the student, so he would know where to report and what to do.'
Mr Tham, now an HR officer, told The New Paper that he learnt of the matter from a former colleague at Beatty Secondary who had called him for advice on how to handle the situation.
Said Mr Tham, who taught the boy in Sec 1: 'When I spoke to the student the day before his exam, he was still unsure about how he should make his way to the exam centre.
'He is not from a well-to-do family, and his mother originally wanted him to take public transport there - but how could he take public transport there in his condition?'
It was then that Mr Tham decided to take charge of the situation.
On 5 Oct - the day of the exam - he woke up at 6am and called a taxi for the student.
He then SMSed the student throughout the taxi journey to make sure he reached the exam centre on time.
He said: 'I would have accompanied him to the centre personally if I hadn't been sick with fever and cough that day.
'Still, I stayed on the phone with him to make sure he knew what to do.'
In a phone interview with The New Paper, the student said he had no idea what to expect when he arrived at the centre.
He said: 'Mr Tham told me that I should ask the security guard upon arrival where I should report and what I should do.'
Mr Tham, who is familiar with the protocol for dealing with students with infectious diseases, said: 'Schools are not allowed to turn away students who are ill. We would have a room on standby for students with symptoms of the flu or other contagious diseases.'
In this case, however, the student's condition required him to take the exam at an external venue.
Mr Tham said he also called the boy after his first paper to check on him.
However, Mr Boo Hian Kok, the principal of Beatty Secondary School, said that the school had made all the required arrangements for the student to sit for his exam externally.
On 2 Oct, the student's form teacher met his sister. The 18-year-old was briefed on what the student should do on the day of the exam. She was also given the address of the exam centre and a map.
Said Mr Boo: 'In giving the instructions and from the interaction with the student and his sister, the form teacher could sense that there was a concern over the cost of transport.
'She immediately assured them that there should be no worries and the school will be able to help them with that.'
The form teacher, he added, advised them to call for a taxi to take the student to the centre, after which the school would reimburse the taxi fare.
No clear instructions
The student, however, told The New Paper that though his sister handed him the map of the exam centre, she did not give him clear instructions on how he was supposed to make his way there.
Mr Boo said the form teacher also called the student after his exam to check how things were going.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Education said there will be arrangements for candidates who have been diagnosed with communicable diseases but who are certified fit by medical doctors to sit for their examinations at designated exam centres or in their own schools.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
| 
